I’ve been having a lot of issues with my mobile phone provider during the last few months, and I’m not sure why these latest issues with the company occurred. It feels either sexist or transphobic, but my guess it’s a process that has the unintentional problem of appearing discriminatory.
It began with a phone billing issue; I had bills that had big surcharges that I couldn’t figure out why these were occurring.
So in fixing that problem, I found out that I could receive a 15 percent discount for being a veteran; a benefit which I hadn’t been taking advantage of as I was unaware of the discount. One of the documents that can be used to indicate one is a veteran with my phone company is a DD214 (the military’s separation of service, or discharge document).
As trans veterans know, trans people can’t change their DD214s to reflect their change of name as the document is considered an historic document by the Department of Defense (DoD). The DoD is aware that trans people can’t change their names on their DD214s, and are currently being sued by the New Jersey chapter of the ACLU to change this policy.
Well, in the last week in August, I sent in a copy of my DD214 by snail mail to the appropriate phone company office. Anticipating that they would question why my first name didn’t match my current first name, I included a copy of my California court document that shows my legal change of name.
I received a post card back stating the discount was denied. The reason was because the name on my DD214 didn’t match my name.
I called the phone company’s customer service line. I talked to a very nice customer service agent, explaining my confusion of being denied the discount. She put me on hold and talked offline to their discounts’ office, and they reaffirmed that I was denied the benefit because the name on my DD214 didn’t match my current name. She, in a tone which indicated, “I don’t understand how this person with a male name could somehow be you” was clearly confused.
I had to out myself as trans. I explained that I included my change of name document specifically because my first names didn’t match. The customer service agent then contacted the discounts’ office for a second time, and spoke to a discounts’ office supervisor. He ended up on the phone with me.
I explained why my billing name didn’t match my DD214 name. After putting me on hold, he came back on the line to tell me for processing I needed to send in a copy of my change document. I frustratingly told him I sent that document in with my request. He again put me on hold, and came back on the line and said, they did have my change of name document on file as I’d sent it in with my DD214. He then explained that it would take another seven to 10 days to process. He apologized in that kind of insincere way customer service professionals do when someone at their business makes a mistake.
I, in an increasingly frustrated tone, explained that even he did a cursory look at my intake documents without noting I’d already provided a change of name document – he literally made the same error the employee who first processed my documents did. And, I found that unbelievable.
This took about 40 minutes. I informed him then that something was wrong with his company’s document intake process. People could change their names for any number of reasons, and gave the extra example that many people change their names when they get married. They needed to check for name change documents on initial processing. I told him their intake process felt both discriminatorily sexist – as more women than men change their names at marriage – and transphobic.
Intentional sexism or transphobia? Probably not. But a process or policy doesn’t have to be intentional to by discriminatory, does it?
And, those are rhetorical questions.
I can’t believe this, did you really expect them to accept who you claim to be on just your word, in this day and age with ID theft as common it is?
I am amazed at how little Tee-Gee people use their god given brain.
Anne
The sense of self-entitlement in this article is astounding. No, this was not sexism or “transphobia.” It was simply a bureaucratic problem. It is not uncommon, when presented with something a bit odd, for a company like that to make a mistake.
But personally, I find this a bit telling. I cannot understand how anyone who claims to be transsexual could have successfully spent 20 years in the military. Yes, women serve, and do quite well. But service as a woman is still quite different from service as a man. I could not have handled the culture of being in the military as a male. I would not have lasted 20 days, let along 20 years. And having completed transition, the idea of trying to use something that would clearly link me to my past, as a male, would be, at the very least, unpleasant. When I began my transition, I quickly worked to correct all my business. I spent a couple of days faxing copies of my name change to credit card companies, and taking care of things like my Social Security card, and driver’s license. The woman at Social Security was very nice, and even corrected my sex designation (which was not supposed to happen until after SRS at the time). I recall one person, at one credit card company, being a tiny bit difficult, and I had one other minor glitch, which was quickly corrected. But I approached it without the sense of entitlement that this article reeks of.
I agree with your comment.I also changed all my I D’ s right away,I did not want anything to do with my former name or former self,because I never related to that name,.in my mind I was always a girl.
Once again, Sandeen looks for sympathy over what is nothing more than garden variety shitty customer service. Guess it runs hand-in-hand with his professional victim mentality…
Well put!
To quote and correct “Anne”‘s quote
I am amazed how little women people use their god given brain.
After all, as Autumn pointed out, many women have name changes that would not be reflected in a DD214. Identity theft of women is just as common occurrence as any other part of the population.
Anne’s statement, including my correction, since Anne on purpose failed to recognize the connection, appears to be nothing more than trying to be argumentative over what is an obvious problem with a telephone company customer service department.
Sorry Dude
Females who are married and divorce can get their names changed on their DD214, The military won’t let M to Ts change their name.
The disconnect seems to be in your head.
I am amazed at how little Tee-Gee people use their god given brain.
Anne
No, you did not “correct” anything. You imposed your view in an attempt to negate Anne’s point. And you failed miserably. Sorry, but “women” do not successfully serve 20 years in the military as men. They might well serve, quite honorably, as women, but a woman would not be able to cope with the culture of being a man in the military.
No, this is another example of the very real disconnect between transgender and transsexual.
I am fairly certain that Autumn was a man and living as a man with a penis while serving in the Military and it was only after this that the transition to Autumn was made.
You have to remember that not all women are the same. There are women that could handle being with men in situations like that. Most women does not mean all women.
I don’t pretend to know or have a strong understanding of being Trans, but I think the people commenting are trying to make one leap to another, and missing the connector that while in the military, while mentally female or not, Autumn was by all appearances a man. And even being mentally female, does not preclude the possibility of being able to survive in the military for 20 years.
You have evidence dating back thousands of years that there were women fighting right next to men in many cultures, it was not just all men like we have largely been lead to believe. Look up recent discoveries on The Vikings.
My guess is Autumn didn’t discovery she was Transgender until after the military service and probably began tranisitioning after. It’s only been in the last 10 years that being Transgender was really a thing beyond some weird fringe group, with the specifics of this group largely unknown to those outside of the LGBT community, and even know, within the LGBT community, it’s not very well known unless you know someone that is, and some are more willing to share their process and discovery than others, which I think prevents Non-Trans people from understanding the process.
Sandeen was a crossdresser during his time in the Navy. And you need to keep in mind, there is a difference between being transgender, which is a matter of identity, and choice, and being transsexual, which is a medical reality that is present from birth. Sandeen is typical of males who evolve from being a crossdresser, who is sexually motivated (i.e. a fetish) into someone who become full-time, and then falsely claims to have been a transsexual all along.
There are those who have transitioned and never had such silly problems as Sandeen has encountered.
They think things through.
They make no assumptions and include all necessary paperwork.
If there is a problem they take it in stride and don’t get their panties in a wad and start making accusations.
Anne
You know, I just noticed something interesting. Sandeen states that “One of the documents that can be used to indicate one is a veteran with my phone company is a DD214 (the military’s separation of service, or discharge document).” This seems to indicate that other documents, including those where the name can be changed, could be used. So, apparently Sandeen chose to use a document containing a male name, when something else was possible. Curious…
Sandeen is and always has been an exhibitionist.
Anne
Exhibitionism is a major component of the transgender paradigm.
I don’t see anywhere in this article that states Sandeen was a cross dresser when in the Navy, though I have not read other articles or know Sandeen personally.
And yes, I am very aware of the spectrums of gender, identity, and self expression is a continum much like sexuality is. I’m well aware of that. I was specifically stating that I am not all that familiar with the specifics of Transgender people and their experiences, all the ones I have met have not been willing to share or discuss their stories with me to help gain knowledge and understanding. That is my point in regards to that particular statement I made.
I think Sandeen had to use the DD214 because it was a specific Military Vet discount she was applying for, so there was no way around it for this specific situation. Though you would THINK one might be able to get some kind of letter from the DOJ or whoever would in charge of these things, to give Trans Veterans letters stating that Robert Smith and Roberta Smith are indeed the same individual, just in case it is needed for specific instances, and I can’t imagine this would be the only case where a Trans individual would need something certifying that their Degree says Robert but their Drivers License now says Roberta, that you would have to further prove more than just a name change document to certify.
That to me would be the most logical thing to do, and I can’t imagine there are THAT many Trans Veterans, only in the sense that it would not require the additional adding of jobs or overwhelm the jobs others. But there are probably enough of them that something like this could be helpful to them in order to take full advantage of Military Benefits if any or all of their service was Pre-Transition, Name Change, and/or SRS (And yes I’m aware you do not have to have SRS to be Trans, I’m very well aware of that).
Sandeen is a rather prolific writer, and was very much a crossdresser for a number of years. That is well established. As to “transgender,” again, it is such a vague term as to be effectively meaningless. I, personally, am not transgender. I do not identify as such, and that is really all transgender is, an identity. It is an artificial social/political construct that has no objective basis.
It is clear from Sandeen’s own words that the DD214 was not the ONLY option, and I suspect that Sandeen chose that form because it featured his birth name.
As to things like college diplomas, most schools will assist with that. While I suppose that some religious schools might object, pretty much any will update transcripts and records on request.
As to SRS, no, one does not have to have SRS to identify as transgender. But if one does not have, or is not actively seeking SRS, and yet claims to be a transsexual, they are either delusional, or lying. Again, transgender is not the same as transsexual. One is an identify, and the other is a medical condition.
I don’t think I could have put it better
Anne
First let me just say that based upon I do think this was just some silly mistakes and ill though out procedures, rather than blatant discrimination.
However I fond some of the views stated in the comments to really claw at me. A Woman, Period, I am guessing from your mention of Transition you, like me, are a Trans woman. Yet some of what you have stated is, in my opinion, essentiallist and bizarrely Transphobic.
Firstly, you make a distinction that Transgender and Transsexual are different. Which I agree with, but not for the same reasons. I view Transgender as a spectrum, in which Trans woman and men sit, albeit only just. As such, while I do not personally understand Androgen, Third Gender, Poly Gender or any of the wide variety of identities within the spectrum, I understand that they are no more choices than my own womanhood is. I didn’t chose to be a woman, and neither did they choose how their minds view themselves. So you see where we differ, as you claim that for Transgender people it is a choice while for us it is a medical reality. You are falling into the exact same pit that many of the LGB did after securing a foothold, pushing another group back.
This can be seen in some of your other comments about the Transgender Spectrum. You call them fetishistic, purely because they did not identify as Trans straight away and instead were cross dressers first. I suppose that makes Laverne Cox a fetishist as she started out as a Drag Queen? This is the exact same rhetoric used by Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists to explain why we should not be given legal protections! You damage all of us when you make sweeping generalisations like that.
Transgender is not a vague term, in fact here is a definition of it for you: “denoting or relating to a person whose self-identity does not conform unambiguously to conventional notions of male or female gender.” Simply put, how a person sees themselves, in our cases as a woman, does not follow what is generally considered normal of that identification, in our cases the fact we were born with bodies that lacked ovaries, womb, vagina and vulva yet had testicles and a penis and our second chromosome was a Y (I am just assuming here, if your were born intersex I apologise). This obviously also encapsulates the other identities as well as they don’t even accept man or woman as identities and form their own. I’ll admit the definition does use “Male and Female Genders” when really man and woman are genders, but I just pulled this right off Google after typing Transgender Definition.
Finally, you get really essentionalist in the final comment I see. You equate getting SRS as the defining characteristic of being Transsexual. I have meant a couple of Transsexual people who do not seek it for a variety of reasons, from believing it will make orgasm’s impossible, to medical conditions that are going to make it too dangerous. By your words they are “delusional” or liars but when I see them I can clearly see a man or woman for who they are, not based upon what equipment they have. Its a horrible that you seem to be suggesting they aren’t “trans enough” and so are lying or delusional.
Your right, Transgender and Transsexual are two different things. One is a spectrum of identities, and the other is one of them. I am just sorry that people within my own identity have such views about others.
In case you are wondering, I am seeking SRS, but that is some way off for me currently for reasons you do not need to know.
No, I am a woman. I do not accept the silly label, “trans woman.” Nor am I transgender, as I do not identify as such (and transgender is ONLY an identity). Please, spare me the “transphobic” silliness. No, I do not agree with the transgender extremist agenda.
And no, transgender is not a spectrum, because transgender is a meaningless term. And much of the behavior of people who identify as transgender is by choice. True, transsexuals are born that way, but crossdressers, and a lot of other behaviors, are by choice. Drag queens are generally gay men. Yes, Cox is probably fetishist. Most who choose to make their histories that well know are. Exhibitionism like that is a part of fetishistic behavior.
The ONLY valid definition of transgender is “someone who chooses to identify with the artificial social/political construct of transgender.” Vague? It is meaningless. There is no objective criteria, other than choosing that as an identity. As to legal protections, I do not believe that behavior should be legally protected. Transsexualism is a medical condition. Choosing to dress up in the clothing of the opposite sex is not. Being a transsexual is more than simply choosing a different way of seeing oneself.
If someone has a penis, and they want to keep their penis, then no, they are not a transsexual, and they are certainly not, remotely, in any sense of the word, a woman. If you want to keep it, and you claim you are a woman, then delusional and/or liar are both possibilities. Transsexual is not an identity. It is an objective medical condition, that requires a trained, and competent expert to diagnose. Sadly, too many quacks will rubber stamp the delusions of those who are not remotely transsexual.
There is no such thing as “trans enough.” One is either a transsexual, or they are not. It is quite binary, just like being a woman. One is either a woman, or not. Woman is not quantifiable. The idea that it can be quantified is a rather male one, and is very common among transvestites and such.
You know, I was well aware of the risks going into surgery. But, I would have preferred to die having SRS, than to live without it. So, spare me the lame “some have medical conditions.” excuse. Legitimate cases where a medical condition would preclude surgery are so rare as to be all but non-existent. And yet, they seem quite common among the “They will take my penis when they pry my cold dead fingers from it,” crowd.
And yeah, I’ve heard that malarkey about how someone is surgical tracked….but….
I rather wish you would not equate Transsexuality to a medical condition, that aids the stigma against us. To be Transsexual is not a condition, we are what we are after all. It’s the Gender Dysphoria, the feeling of a distress that comes from having a body that does not align with our self understanding. I am afraid that Transsexuality is very much an identity, as there are plenty examples of Trans woman who have gone through the process, and afterwards say they are no longer Transsexuals, for now their body aligns correctly.
I am unsure of what this “Transgender Extremist Agenda” is, because last I knew it was about accepting people for who they are regardless of physical appearance. Honestly it sounds like some Right Wing scaremongering to me.
You keep commenting on Transgener people having a choice, but remember so did we. We both had the choice of either accepting who we were in a world that is generally negative toward us, or to hide from ourselves so that we continued to fit in with this horrible world. I hope you agree that we made the right choice by ignoring the world’s view and being who we are. Transgender people, whether they are cross dressers, transvestites ,poly gender, third gender or androgen (and many more) are really making the same choice. I have a couple of Transvestite friends, and how they have described wearing female clothes goes beyond simply wearing them as a choice, they often describe feeling more comfortable and confident in them. Sounds like the same reasons I started my Transition.
I fail to see where you definition comes from. It is not in any of my dictionaries, nor what pops up when I type in Transgender into Google. In fact I know where it comes from, I’ve heard it spouted from our good friends the Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists!
Do you even realise how much like a TERF you sound by saying “If someone has a penis, and they want to keep their penis, then no, they are not a transsexual, and they are certainly not, remotely, in any sense of the word, a woman?” You are not only hurting the Trans Woman who feel no need for full SRS, but also Intersex Woman who may feel no need have corrective surgery. That same argument is the one being used to deny rights to Trans woman, especially those in early stages of Transition. You are destroying who these people are purely because you feel the need to police their gender, just like those we should be fighting against. Just because you were willing to die on an operating table gives you no right to claim any who aren’t are somehow less than you.
I agree, one is either Transsexual or not, and I never claimed being a woman was somehow quantifiable. If it was I think I would have a very poor score considering my past times and general clothing choice, but we both know being a woman is to do with who we are, not what we do. To be Transsexual you still need to be at either side of the spectrum, identifying as a woman or man, and not sit in between, as many do. I may not understand what it feels like to sit in between, but that does not make it any less real in the same way my identity sits on the opposite end that my appearance at birth should dictate.
Some food for thought here. Seeing as you are pointing out that being Transsexual is medically objectionable I am going to assume you and I both follow the understanding that the brain is sexed. In Transsexuals, the brain sex is the opposite of what the body would suggest. Considering we know the body can be Intersex, or “between” to two commonly accepted sexes, is it not possible that the brain can end up in a similar state? I certainly think so, and so accept my Transgender Cousins (it was a nice androgynous word that didn’t discriminate, its nice not discriminating, you should try it).
I want to apologise to any Intersex people reading my comment. “Corrective Surgery” should not be what it says. I am unsure of the proper term but I will research it next time I bring it up so as to not cause offense. Again I am sorry.
Transsexualism not a medical condition.
Dude your reality check just bounced.
Anne
If you think the fact that transsexualism is a medical condition aids the stigma against transsexuals, then you are sadly deluded. What aids the stigma is the idea that you are some dude who has chosen to act out. No, it is not an identity. I am a diabetic. That is not an “identity.” That is a fact. If, by some miracle, they found a cure, I would no longer be a diabetic. In fact, if I were a Type I diabetic, and I received a pancreas transplant, then there would be a good chance that I would be cured, and would stop being a diabetic. I had SRS, so I consider myself to be simply a woman…not a trans woman. Anyone who identifies as a “trans woman” is probably someone who was not transsexual before SRS, but is now. They are clinging to being a man. No, their body does not align properly, otherwise they would not need to identify as “trans.”
Actually, you just hit the nail on the head about the “Transgender Extremist Agenda.” It is about forcing people to abandon all reason, and accept someone’s absurd claim that they are a woman, simply because they say so. If they have a penis, that they want to keep, if they look like a dude in a dress, if they are freaking out the women who’s bathroom they invade, everyone is supposed to pretend he is really just a woman. Poppycock. As I have said, if I encountered someone like “Colleen” Francis parading around with his penis flapping about in a women-only area…well, that’s what pepper spray is for. A dose in the eyes, and then a second dose down there.
Actually, the more extreme of so-called “TERFs” don’t even recognize SRS as valid. But no, if you have a penis, and you want to keep it, then no, you are not a transsexual, and are certainly not a woman. Read up on Arnold Lowman, aka Charles “Virginia” Prince. He had a considerable influence on Robert Stoller, who wrote extensively on both transsexualism, and transvestitism. He claimed that transvestites desire to be “women with penises.” I found this rather odd, until I found out that Lowman was his principle source of information, and I found out about Lowman’s views on both SRS, and crossdressing. And it was Lowman, and his ilk, that gave us the modern transgender paradigm, irregardless of what some try to claim. He may not have invented the term as such, but he greatly influenced the ideas behind the transgender paradigm, and was a role model for those who pushed the current concept.
Again, if you have a penis, and you want to keep it, you are NOT a woman. And if you are such a person, you really have NO business trying to claim “rights.” You are damn straight I want to deny men the right to invade women’s spaces.
I never said that being a transsexual was “objectionable,” I said it was objective. That means it is based in fact, and is not subjective. The vast majority of those who identify as transgender have a body and a brain that are both the same. That is the whole point. They don’t have a female brain. They are men with a fetish.
Rights are based on objective criteria, not behavior, and certainly not on claimed feelings. Recognizing that is not discrimination. It is just common sense. Calling a man, a woman, just to pander to his perversions is absurd.
I am going by what the NHS says, which follows pretty close to the WPATH Standards of care, which is that to be Transsexual is NOT a medical condition, its is the Gender Dysphoria that is. Once a person goes through the Transition up until a point they feel happy with themselves, the Gender Dysphoria is said to be cured. Of course that doesn’t stop depression still occurring when people such as yourself call into question who someone is. The T in WPATH by the way stands for Transgender, and considering they are a credible multinational organisation who base their understanding on years of research by countless professors, have shaped the European Health systems views of how to treat Trans individuals and are doing so now in America too, think I’ll take what they say over you.
Yet again you begin to spout alot of TERF rhetoric, about men invading woman’s bathrooms (ah the bathroom meme, you were here for the civil rights movement, the gay rights movement and now you show ugly head here again). I think you’ll find no TERF accepts SRS, to them you are no more than a mutilated, delusional man with a severe perversion that must be suppresed. Sound familiar? It should because it’s exactly what you are saying about some of my friends.
On your last point there, that rights should be base on objective criteria, not behaviors or feelings. By that regard, married couples, the religious and even us two, deserve no rights. How? Well married people feel in love, it is not objective or quantifiable, and love means something different to everyone in even the tiniest sense. Religious people feel a certain god or gods exist, and follow behaviors set out by that god or gods, like eating specific foods, as it is based purely on beliefs, no one bars those who do can truly understand it, and there is no way to tell which is the correct one. We both feel like woman, because we are, but also feel the pain that comes from having a body that does not align with that self image, no one bar ourselves can truly understand that feeling and really it is a feeling brought on by our brain structure, and we transition because aside from lobotomies it is impossible to alter brain structure. You can argue that for all of these you either are or you aren’t, but the same argument can be made for the variety of Transgender identities.
Perhaps this is a generational gap thing, going out on a limb but I guess you are older than me. By how much I won’t guess for chance to offend you. Speaking generally here, the younger you are, the more malleable to ideas you are, with a better capacity for empathy and understanding. Just look at the people who would forcibly detransition us and send us to camps to keep us away, or worse, kill us. The are mostly people in their late forties to sixties. As a Transitioned Transsexual woman, you are in a perfect place to understand what it feels like to have a mind that does not fit your body, because you’ve been there! You aren’t Cis Gender, so you have the experience, the understanding, the knowledge. Don’t fall into the trap of policing others after you yourself were more than likely policed. You may not understand how the various Transgender identities completely feel, but you know little bits. Just because it does not match your own understanding does not make it a perversion , in the same way our transition is not a perversion despite the Cis Gender people who think it is.
If you are going to cite a source, please refrain from using a radical transgender one. WPATH use to be a legitimate group, HBIGDA, made up of medical professionals. Then, a few years ago, it was taken over by extremists, who changed the name, and took a totally different path. I wrote a paper, by the way, which was presented at one of their conferences. Yes, I am quite aware of the name change. And no, they are no longer credible. They went from being credible, to pushing a radical agenda. It is not based on research…it is based on politics.
You have been reading too many radical transgender sources. In truth, so-called TERFs are a small, and rather insignificant group. They represent an extreme world-view that has little, if any, actual effect on anything. But, some transgender extremists have become obsessed. Of course, they are all “male lesbians” who apparently think the TERFs are going to keep them from being able to have sex with women. In fact, a major part of these creeps agenda is trying to pressure lesbians to accept transgender men as sex partners (the so-called “cotton ceiling”). Very creepy.
While I do not agree with a lot of the views of so-called TERFs, I also could care less. You see, unlike a lot of these “men in dresses” I am quite secure in my identity. I have no need to force people to pander to me.
If you cannot see the major differences between excluding people from bathrooms based on race, and maintaining privacy for both women, and men, well, you have been guzzling the transgender Kool-Aid by the gallon. There is no comparison. Men have no business being in the ladies room. Especially men who cannot possibly hope to assimilate.
Actually, marriage is an objective concept. You either are, or you are not. The same is true for religion, and every other criteria for banning discrimination, except “gender expression” which is increasingly pushed by the radicals.
Are you really trying to claim that crossdressers suffer from gender dysphoria? Hogwash.
Transsexuals are extremely rare. Delusional men who have gotten carried away with their crossdressing to the point that they want to do it all the time, that’s more common.
Yes, I am probably older than you. I was a transsexual back when it wasn’t a fad. I was a transsexual back when “transgender” wasn’t used. There was the Tri-Ess crowd, which pretty much feared transsexuals, and there were those few who were actually transsexuals. Then the Tri-Ess bunch decided to co-opt transsexuals, and things got messed up.
Being a transsexual is not a perversion. Being a crossdresser, well, that is another matter.
Oh for the love of god is there any way you could get more Tee-Gee.
All that gender spectrum bullshit is just that bullshit.
If you want to talk about sexual variation that is another matter Male Female and Intersex, You people don’t get to control the debate by controlling the vocabulary.
Men have penises women have vaginas.
Intersex people have a little of both or neither.
Anne.